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A Rose For Emily Literary Analysis

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In the story “A Rose for Emily,” the author uses many ways to contribute to the overall message and theme. The message and theme is to not dwell in the past. One of the ways the author contributes to the overall message and theme is by the mood which is nostalgic. Nostalgia is a “sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations” (Wikipedia). This makes sense because Emily has been secluded from people and only around her controlling dad all her life, because he believes that he and his daughter are better than everyone else therefore they should not commute with anyone unless they have too. Emily is a traditional lady that other people wish to have her respect and honor. …show more content…

Emily was so used to living in the past that the present seems unrealistic to her. The fact that they want to build sidewalks and put numbers on the houses seems absurd to her because Emily does not like change. She cannot even believe that Jefferson county ever even considered the repaving of sidewalks. This shows that it is no longer a ghost town that’s dreaming of its once great past; Jefferson county is now up and moving. That is showing that they are opening their town doors to whoever chooses to walk down its streets. The setting of the story takes place in a fictional town called Yoknapatawpha in Mississippi. The setting contributes to the overall theme and message because the town helps give off that gothic vibe as said earlier. The power of death is a dominant theme because death takes over every attempt to master it, death will always win. Emily gives into death slowly. Emily tries to exert the power of death by denying it like when her father died. Her bizarre relationship to the dead bodies of the men she has loved which is shown first for her father. Emily clings to her father because he is the only controlling paternal figure she has grown up with, she gives up on his body when the townspeople make her. When homer dies she refuses to notice it once again even though she is the one responsible for his death. She killed Homer so she could keep him close to

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